IRS engages in ideology profiling

The IRS’ apparent targeting of tea party “social welfare” organizations was wrong, but the powerful federal agency was only following the script written by other agencies with power and authority over our lives.

The fact is that political ideology profiling, of which the IRS is being accused, is no different from the racial or religious profiling law enforcement entities have embraced as a solution to reducing drug use, crime and violence in our society.

In the case of the IRS we are told in an inspector general’s report that the agency used “inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations” applying for tax-exempt 501(c)(4), or “social welfare” status.

According to the report, the identification and review of these groups was based on their names or policy positions instead of indications of any political campaign impropriety. In essence, the IRS investigators were saying, if an application was submitted by a tea party group, chances are the group was up to no good.

I am no fan of the tea party. That a group of their members should be allowed to cloak themselves in the mantle of social welfare organizations is laughable, given the havoc such right-wingers in Congress have created in the governance of the country over the past several years.

Their insistence, for example, on an imbalanced reduction in the nation’s debt, in my opinion, has led to much pain and suffering in the lives of the poor, the young and the elderly, and has significantly slowed the nation’s recovery from recession.

But still, basic fairness dictates that all applicants for 501(c)(4) status undergo such scrutiny, or none of them.

This is more than just a conservative-liberal political dustup. It is about the corruption of our political process by big money. According to the statute governing 501(c)(4) organizations, they are supposed to engage exclusively in social welfare activities, such as educational programs. The statute also says that campaign activity is not social welfare activity.

Over the years, however, interpretation of the statute has gone from social welfare activities being the exclusive to the primary role of these groups.

Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a campaign finance organization, noted in a Washington Post interview that the established view in the nonprofit world today is that “you can spend 49 percent of your annual expenditures on campaign activity, and still be eligible for 501(c)(4)” status.

With the U.S, Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United allowing corporations, labor unions and other outside groups and associations to spend without limits on elections (as long as they are not backing a particular candidate), the strategic value of 501(c)(4) was seized on by both parties.

Mr. Wertheimer pointed out, for example, that the conservative super PAC, American Crossroads GPS and its liberal counterpart, Priorities USA Action, are both affiliated with 501(c)(4)s.

“This is simply one part of the case that shows that groups like Crossroads GPS and Priorities USA were created for the purpose of hiding donors,” Mr. Wertheimer said. “Donors were basically told: ‘You can give your money to the super PAC, but you’ll be disclosed. If you don’t want to be disclosed, give it to our 501(c)(4), and we’ll hide who you are.”’

Until we come to our senses and reverse Citizens United, we must with due diligence and without bias try to determine the legitimacy of these “social welfare” nonprofit organizations before we turn them loose on the American public.

It is good to see our political leaders being righteously incensed at the IRS’s actions. I only wish they would show the same level of outrage at racial and religious, aka, Muslim, profiling.

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